


The Scent of Death

by SushiSunflower



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:47:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23414794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SushiSunflower/pseuds/SushiSunflower
Summary: A very short history of lucien's time in the autumn court
Relationships: Jesminda/Lucien Vanserra
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	The Scent of Death

Lucien hadn't always been able to smell death.

He was 10 years old the first time it happened or at least the first time he noticed.  
The air had become tight, the room too silent and his father's eyes too hateful  
And then everything and everywhere had been leached of all color but red. Either that or Lucien's eyes had gone straight to the blood  
It didn't look ruby red like people described it. Didn't look like the roses that mysteriously arrived in his mother's room once every month. Didn't look like his hair   
or the velvet cakes that Aina had baked for his last birthday.  
Lucien had no words to describe what it looked like. Thankfully, he never had too. Everyone in Autumn knew that red  
The male that was now lying prostate on the marble floor meant nothing to him.But it had still given him nightmares.

The second time was only an year later, the past month had been a blur of hiding under his thick brown blankets to muffle the screaming matches every time the High  
Lord walked into his mother's quarters.....which was every night.  
Lucien could have avoided it all if he had stayed in his own room, but as soon as the sun went down he couldn't help but sneak out for some company. Even if it was an  
hour of his madraya's attention.(He hated being alone and would take having his ears bleed out over not having a single person speak to him the whole day)  
That day, death had smelt like breaking glass and numb whimpers  
But the scent had passed. As all scents do  
It made Lucien realize why the scent was significant even though death had not graced his mother that night. No, it had only extinguished her spirit.  
She had never been the same again.

The third time it had smelt like burning skin, for it was, as he lay pinned to the floor Eris screaming at Jonasen to stop hurting him, he was just a child.

The fourth time, he didn't smell it. He reeked of it. His own haunted russet eyes looking back from the mirror

So when years later, his brother's whispered the name of his beloved into his ears, it took him seconds to realize what was coming.  
He had done everything. Had secured their hiding place with as many archaic protection spells he knew, had requested only his most trusted friend to guard her and run  
if everything went to hell. Had prayed to what gods would listen  
But the smell wouldn't go. It wouldn't leave

The fifth time, he hadn't just scented it, he had heard it ringing out in her screams.... his own, seen it in the arc of an ordinary steel blade, felt it as he swore  
something in his chest snapped and seen it in the last time her eyes met his.

After that, he stopped counting


End file.
